Testing The OSSC Pro's New Scaler Mode With Weird Old PCs

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The OSSC Pro is the brand new video scaler from Markus Hiienkari, who brought us the mighty Open Source Scan Converter back in 2016. This scaler supports VGA, component and RGB SCART input and I'm helping to test a prototype unit with some old PCs to help iron out some bugs - so let's take a look!
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[@ctrlaltrees]

Note: I don’t attempt to measure lag in this video as I can’t speak with any authority on this subject and don’t have the equipment to measure this, and besides, it’s not really relevant for my use case. Be on the lookout for upcoming videos from DFRetro and RetroRGB for scientific measurements as always. All tests in this video were performed in scaler mode using integer scaling with all settings on auto.

[@Francois_Dupont]

sorry to reply to this comment with unrelated stuff. would it be possible to do another Solar Setup video? i actually bought and installed my own DIY solar setup myself following the viewing of your original video. i am interested in buying another inverter next to update my current one..

[@PG-gs5vb]

Would be interesting to test some of those custom VGA modes such as 320x480 or 360x240. These were sometimes called mode X. There were a few games that used them, such as Pinball Fantasies, IIRC.

[@nickwallette6201]

I am very happy to hear about this. I've been using a couple of the original OSSCs as my scaler/HDMI converter for a few years. They do alright, remarkably good given it's not their core competency, but I'm really anxious for something that can lock on to the signal more quickly. The BIOS boot screen, and often the Windows loading screen, are both just lost in the dark. And sometimes it doesn't come back until I cycle inputs. Minor gripe considering how critical it is that ANYthing exists to do this, but would be nice to have that fixed.

[@nickwallette6201]

PS, I didn't know there was a version of Terminal Velocity optimized for early 3D cards. Might have to check that out! Will have to pick up a ViRGE card though, if I can't find one in my couch cushions somewhere. Too bad there's no Mystique version. :-D I wonder how it differs from Fury3?

[@ctrlaltrees]

All of the S3 ViRGE games (and patches, where applicable) are available on my website with full instructions. I spent far too much time on it at one point 😅

[@Vanessaira-Retro]

Superb job Rees! Thank you for doing all this and getting this video out.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks Vanessa, glad you enjoyed it. There's a lot more to come!

[@MrLurchsThings]

If it can eventually do composite and be competitive price wise against the RetroTink, it’ll be awesome. I never understood tho why even the original couldn’t do composite and/svideo over the SCART connector given the SCART connector standards support it.

[@nickwallette6201]

Because decoding color is a PITA.

[@NJRoadfan]

One resolution to test that has been "hard to capture" would be 1024x768 interlaced at 43.5Hz. This is an original IBM 8514/A output resolution that many 386/486 era SVGA cards support (ex: Cirrus Logic 542x series). A good test bed would be that 486 and Windows 3.1x. The original OSSC can't capture it at all and other solutions struggle with it as well. The only card I have that properly supports it is an Epiphan DVI2PCIe capture card.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Great suggestion, thanks! I'll see what I can do.

[@mattsword41]

love to see your RM machine - always raised a nostalgic smile. Used them at school too :)

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks! I really should do more with it...

[@mattsword41]

@@ctrlaltrees I see there is an RM laptop in background too? Used to have one of those as my parents worked in education

[@joopidema]

Nice converter. Had never heard of it. I use the RGBtoHDMI myself and am a great fan of it. Liked the video!

[@andrewlittleboy8532]

Would be interesting how it works with Acorn A3000 machines and above. I bought an OSSC once but it had a trouble syncing with the various modes that are available on my A4000.

[@paulosmialowski9284]

So glad to see it released after so many years that passed since the very first announcement of Pro. What I miss in this video is a test with some early pre-1994 VGA cards from the 1980s, like 8-bit-ISA Paradise VGA (quite popular at that time, as individual cards or onboard graphics devices), so far no scaler I tried handled them good entirely.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Indeed, it's great to see those component shortages finally lifting and all the great projects finally making it out there. I've had a lot of good suggestions in these comments for other bits of software etc to test all of the various modes out there so I'm not done yet. Part of the reason for putting this out there was because I knew I'd get some good feedback on things to test. Thanks!

[@NightSprinter]

As a Voodoo2 owner, it SHOULD theoretically be possible to go into the 3Dfx control panel, and alter what the card outputs in terms of refresh rates. Also, I wish I didn't have to choose between analogue output (as I have a very nice Compaq MV920 that can go up to a staggering 1920x1440p60), and composite/s-video input.

[@JakeWorrell]

Hi Rees, Have you tried it with the original MDA card on the IBM PC? Hercules would be interesting too.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Good call! I haven't yet but I'm certainly planning on putting it through its paces on all the various MDA / CGA / EGA modes in the very near future. I might do a dedicated video on it...

[@JakeWorrell]

@@ctrlaltrees sounds great, looking forward to it!

[@thepirategamerboy12]

There's a tool included in the YAHDI image to force 24khz, in the TOOLS/SCAN31 folder. This is a tool normally used for forcing a machine running in 24khz to do 31khz, but you can also do the reverse. Run S24 in that folder. Most games run fine in 31khz but a few will run too fast or have minor glitches if you don't do 24. Not sure why 24khz wouldn't stick on power-up though, not a huge deal but it'd be nice. Also, I do appreciate your slightly more positive look on the Virge compared to others. That video of you going through all the Virge supported games is still excellent imo.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks! The Virge was certainly a product of its time and while software rendering overtook it pretty rapidly (not to mention the arrival of the Voodoo cards) it's certainly an interesting piece of history.

[@Simon-ui6db]

I wonder how the ossc would handle an original rm nimbus with their customs graphics they had before they released the pc186.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Alas, if only I could get my hands on one to test! Always been one of my "holy grail" machines.

[@SuperVirus1978]

Hi, may I recommend to DOS fractal generator FractInt for testing? It supports a multitude of exotic video modes and video cards. Maybe it can help Markus trying out some obscure/exotic modes.

[@NJRoadfan]

Someone put out a VGA Monitor benchmark suite on VOGONS. Search for a thread called "LCD monitor VGA compatibility database" by xjas to grab a copy. It is a torture test of DOS demos and applications that even trip up multisync CRTs!

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks for the suggestion, I have downloaded it and will be checking it out this weekend. 🙂

[@ItsJustJer]

Weird and old? I find them quite unique and interesting to be honest.

[@ctrlaltrees]

As do I, hence I've dedicated an entire KZbin channel to them over the past 4 years. 🙂

[@humidbeing]

You can pick up a used Extron 300A for 1/3 the price or less.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Good to know! I should probably pick one up and see how it compares to the various scalers I have here.

[@aaroncheah2088]

Will this work with Atari ST via ST2VGA for both mono and colour modes?

[@ctrlaltrees]

I've been testing this and the short answer is yes, it works amazingly well with the ST. The slightly longer answer is that the high res mono mode, while looking super sharp, doesn't scale to fill the screen properly. It's something I'm going to feed back to Markus after some more thorough testing.